


Caregiver

by yeaka



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21895792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: Ignis’ summer job goes awry.
Relationships: Prompto Argentum/Ignis Scientia
Comments: 6
Kudos: 88





	Caregiver

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Final Fantasy XV or any of its contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

Ignis should’ve asked the age of his charge. In hindsight, it seems an enormous oversight—different ages require vastly different levels of care, though the Argentums were quite detailed in their outline. They seemed like perfectly nice, reasonable people—two scientists leaving shortly for Altissia, with a rather simple need: someone to check in on their only son. Ignis wasn’t offering to change diapers. His resume wasn’t for infants. But surely the boy he’ll be looking after will be old enough to leave alone for an extended period, though Ignis is supposed to check in regularly and cook for him, make sure he’s eating right, clean up the house and be sure that he cleans as well. All relatively simple things. Nothing Ignis doesn’t do for Noctis already. But Noctis is, technically, a grown man who should have grown out of that. 

Ignis approaches the door of the ground-floor apartment expecting the worst but hoping for the best. This job won’t pay nearly as much as the crown does, but it’s still a second job and will help. He just hopes that this secondary charge will have better manners than the first. He smoothes out the folds of his grey suit and straightens up before he dares to ring the doorbell. The Argentums should already be gone by now. He should’ve insisted he meet the child before they left—now he _can’t_ turn down the job even if the boy is far worse than Noctis, because it’s too late for his parents to meet a replacement.

Ignis hears the typical clattering around on the other side, and then the door lurches open, and Ignis looks down, ready to meet the boy he’ll be babysitting.

He looks up again, because the ‘boy’ is only a tiny bit shorter than him. And not a boy. Definitely a man. A young man, granted, but maybe the exact same age as Noctis. 

He’s a cute, attractive, trim blond with a smattering of freckles across his handsome face and a hip, vaguely punk-ish clothing style reminiscent of the tiny skull pendant around Ignis’ neck. Big blue eyes blink up at Ignis, and then the man’s blushing. He looks surprised but interested. He mutters, “Uh... hi?”

“Hi,” Ignis answers, before adding, half to himself, “I must have the wrong address.”

“Oh.” The man frowns. “Who are you looking for?”

“The Argentums.”

The man brightens again and thrusts out a hand, bursting, “Oh! Then you are looking for me. I’m Prompto Arge—” He cuts off halfway, suddenly paling. He finishes in a weak mumble. “Oh. Shit. You’re... did my parents actually...”

“Hire a babysitter?” Ignis offers. “Yes, they did.” He takes the liberty of glancing over Prompto’s shoulder. The front hall, at least, looks perfectly tidy. _Prompto_ looks perfectly tidy. His hair’s even styled. He even _smells_ nice.

He’s also turning pink right to his ears. Ignis sympathizes. He would’ve been mortified too if his uncle hired a babysitter for him a year ago. He can’t be much more than two or three years older than Prompto. Prompto offers weakly, “The, uh... the house is clean right now... so...”

Ignis doesn’t know what to say. “I’m supposed to feed you.”

“Can I buy you dinner?”

“What?”

Somehow, Prompto manages to turn even redder. “I mean, uh, I guess technically if we were gonna do that, you should be buying me dinner. But that’s super rude. So, like... first one’s on me? I mean. Not that there’ll necessarily be other ones if you don’t want...”

Ignis blinks. There wasn’t supposed to be any _buying dinner._ It was supposed to be homemade and deliberately nutritious.

There are healthy restaurants out there. It feels like the person he’s supposed to be babysitting just asked him out. He did pointedly dress up for this. Maybe he did show up on Prompto’s doorstep looking like just another young man, ready for a date. 

Ignis tries to weigh out in his head if that’d be unethical or not. He definitely needs to refund the Argentums’ money. He should probably back right out of Prompto’s life and find another part-time job.

Prompto says, “Uh... you can come in if you want? Like... to see if the place is clean? But it is, so we could... like... watch a movie instead... do you want a drink?”

Ignis can’t go in. He can’t conflate cleaning up after Prompto and watching a movie with Prompto. The mix of job versus attraction is already too weird. One will have to go. 

He’s quitting the job. He suggests, “We’ll split it.”

“What?”

“Dinner.”

“Oh.” Prompto’s grinning again, wide and all the more beautiful for his blush. He says, “I’ll get my coat.”

He emerges a second later. Ignis checks just in case, but the jacket doesn’t require washing. It seems like Prompto’s going to be just fine on his own.


End file.
